Summit Outcomes

Countries

Climate Leaders

Speakers

Climate Commitments

Social Media Impressions

Affiliate Events

INTRODUCTION

This unprecedented climate gathering brought together over 5,000 doers from around the world — heads of state, mayors, governors, CEOs, investors, scientists and advocates — and catalyzed bold new commitments to climate action across sectors.

The list below highlights the major commitments brought by the jurisdictions, companies, investors and individuals who stepped up to redouble their own climate actions. These actions demonstrate the breadth and depth of support for the Paris Agreement and are a testament to the ambition of climate leaders everywhere.

We look forward to progress reports on the implementation of these commitments at upcoming global milestones, including COP24 in Poland, the Secretary General’s 2019 Climate Summit and other important events through the 2020 COP – a critical moment for national governments to step up and increase their own ambition with enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions.

As the Call to Global Climate Action emphasizes, these commitments are just the start. We all have more work to do. We must be moving full-speed, together, toward the goal of a fully decarbonized global economy by mid-century.

Carbon Neutrality

As the IPCC Global Warming of 1.5*C report reiterates, reaching and sustaining net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century is the key to addressing climate change and avoiding its most catastrophic impacts.

At the Global Climate Action Summit, more than 100 jurisdictions — including California, the world’s fifth largest economy — and over 70 big cities that are home to more than 425 million people, as well as a significant number of companies — including heavy industrial emitters and financial institutions — joined those who have explicitly pledged to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century.

Deadline 2020: Carbon Neutral Climate Plans from 73 of the World’s Largest Cities

Speaking on behalf of 73 cities, the Mayor of Durban, Zandile Gumede, announced a broad commitment by cities representing 2.5% of global annual emissions and more than 425 million citizens to develop inclusive climate action plans by 2020 that strengthen resilience and reach carbon neutrality by 2050, thus aligning their jurisdictions with the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement.

Alongside Durban, cities that have made this pledge include Accra, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Mexico City.

Their new commitments will deliver additional avoided emissions of 12 gigatons CO2e by 2050. This pledge continues the broad leadership of cities in the climate fight: to date, 27 cities have peaked their emissions and a further 9,100 cities representing 800 million citizens are committed to developing city-wide climate action plans. Six thousand of these cities are already implementing plans that meet or exceed their countries’ Nationally Determined Contribution. If fully realized, these commitments would account for more than 60 gigatonnes of additional CO2e reductions between now and 2050.

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed Executive Order B-55-18 committing the State of California, the world’s fifth largest economy, to net-zero carbon emissions by 2045 and net-negative emissions thereafter. The Order compliments a suite of policies developed by the state — anchored by its signature cap-and-trade program — to reduce emissions across economic sectors, and further aligns the state’s goals with the demands of climate science.

Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann announced that the German State of Baden-Württemberg will by law and practice make their state administration carbon neutral by 2040 and will make the whole of the Baden-Wurttemberg economy carbon neutral by 2050.

Already, the state is committing hundreds of millions of dollars into energy retrofits for buildings, growing markets for zero-emission vehicles, enhancing low-carbon public transit from buses to bicycles, and improving comprehensive climate planning.

Very soon, the state at the heart of German car manufacturing will roll its first pure electric sports car off the production line.

The global financial institution ING, headquartered in the Netherlands, became the first financial institution to pledge to align their entire lending portfolio of $600 billion in assets under management with the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement. They will be the first commercial bank to pilot the benchmarking guidelines developed by the International Energy Agency in order to meet this goal.

ING will utilize the Terra Climate Alignment approach to steer their international lending portfolio toward a well below 2-degree climate future.

Group Chairman Anand Mahindra announced that the $20.7 billion Mahindra & Mahindra Group will be carbon neutral by 2040. The Group employs more than 240,000 people across 100 countries. The group started as a steel trading company in 1945 and now spans a diverse range of sectors from finance and manufacturing to real estate development and IT. The group is one of the largest car manufacturers in India. It plans to achieve its goals through energy efficiency, renewable power, and strengthening of carbon sinks.

In 2018, the world’s seventh largest carpet manufacturer, Interface Carpet, announced they had reached carbon neutrality company-wide two years ahead of their 2020 goal. At the Global Climate Action Summit, CEO Jay Gould affirmed that this is not sufficient: by 2040, he pledged, the company will shift their entire value chain from being an emitter of carbon to one that utilizes and stores carbon in their products and operations.

They will achieve carbon negativity by innovating within their supply chain and raw materials. Already, they are making concrete investments to make products with carbon-sequestering materials.

Clean and Healthy Energy

With more than 25% of global emissions originating from electricity and heat generation, transitioning to a 100% clean power economy is a climate imperative.

To this end, nearly 400 global companies, cities, states and regions have committed themselves to 100% renewable energy targets. From Tata Motors to Sony, who have joined the RE100 initiative alongside 150 major global corporations, to the more than 30 energy-intensive industrial companies who have pledged to double their energy productivity through the EP100, companies are seeing clean energy as smart business.

The Summit sparked new commitments to renewables, utility-scale storage, energy productivity, the end of coal, energy access, and smart grid innovation, demonstrating that the full force of the economy sees the trend toward cleaner, smarter power and is heading full-speed toward implementing that brighter future.

RE100 Announces New Corporate Membership

Nearly 150 major global corporations, including 13 new members such as McKinsey & Company, WeWork, Royal Bank of Scotland, PVH, Lyft and Sony, have joined the RE100 Initiative, thus pledging to use 100% renewable energy for all their business. The collective annual revenues of these companies total well over US $2.75 trillion and their annual electricity demand is higher than that of Poland.

Eighteen health care institutions representing the interests of over 1,200 hospitals and health centers in 10 countries have made the commitment to purchase 100% renewable electricity. When achieved, these institutions will collectively be serving more than 23 million patients per year at facilities powered by 3.3 billion kilowatt hours of renewable electricity. In doing so, they will have reduced their aggregate annual greenhouse gas emissions by over 1 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent.

This group includes major U.S. providers such as Kaiser Permanente, University of California Health, and Partners HealthCare, alongside hospitals from Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Morocco, Uganda and Nepal. climate action

At the Global Climate Action Summit, 10 new jurisdictions joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, bringing the total number of jurisdictional signees to 74. Members of the Alliance include 29 nation states, 17 sub-national jurisdictions and 28 businesses. These members pledge to phase out traditional coal power within their jurisdictions and place a moratorium on any new traditional coal power stations without operational carbon capture and storage technologies. New signatories for the Summit included Australian Capital Territory, Australia; Balearic Islands, Spain; Connecticut, USA; Hawaii, USA; Minnesota, USA; New York State, USA; Wales, UK; City of Honolulu, USA; City of Los Angeles, USA; and the City of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey announced that the state is on course to reach its goal of 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030, a key milestone in the administration’s goal of transforming New Jersey into a 100% clean energy state by 2050. The announcement came just days before the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities unanimously approved the opening of a solicitation for 1,100 megawatts of offshore wind generation. The Governor also called for the board to open two additional windows in 2020 and 2022 to achieve the 3,500 megawatt target.

Kaiser Permanente, the U.S.’s largest nonprofit integrated health care system, announced that they have finalized a 180-megawatt power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy, a key step toward achieving their aggressive renewable energy and 2020 carbon neutrality goals. The power generation agreement will enable the construction of utility-scale solar and wind capacity — plus one of the country’s largest battery energy storage systems — that will generate enough capacity to power 27 of Kaiser Permanente’s 39 hospitals. Thanks to the capacity within the power purchase agreement, Kaiser expects to start using 1 million megawatt-hours of renewable electricity per year and to become the largest purchaser of renewable energy in the health care sector.

Thirty-three major companies from 14 countries have joined the EP100 — an initiative by The Climate Group and the Alliance to Save Energy to dramatically reduce emissions from heavy industry and property companies by increasing energy productivity. These companies represent more than $238 billion in revenue and more than 1.1 million employees.

New signees at the Summit included UltraTech Cement, Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers, Mahindra Heavy Engines, and Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies, and Sasol.

Elemental Excelerator to Invest in Innovation in Low- to Moderate-Income Communities

At the Global Climate Action Summit, founder Dawn Lippert announced a new award for 2018 in which Elemental pledged $4.5 million to seven startups to increase access to innovation in California’s low- to moderate-income communities. This is part of an effort by the accelerator to speed the clean energy transformation and foster economic growth in disadvantaged communities.

Elemental Excelerator identifies and funds 15-20 companies per year that improve the energy, water, agriculture and transportation systems that impact people’s lives. To date, it has deployed $22 million to 63 portfolio companies.

In partnership with DBL Partners, ZOLA Electric announced an initial target to deliver clean energy access to 1 million households and businesses in Nigeria over the next three years. ZOLA’s expansion will allow Nigerian consumers to access cost-effective solar + storage systems as alternatives to diesel generators. ZOLA’s energy access model combines PAYGo micro-finance leasing and mobile money payments to offer solar + storage for a monthly price that is less than the average energy outlay on diesel generators in Nigeria.

Nigeria is a rapidly expanding economic powerhouse, however its electrical grid is unable to meet its citizens’ basic energy demands. Power from the grid is unreliable and expensive and this has driven more than 100 million Nigerian households to rely on diesel generators to power their basic energy needs in their homes or apartments.

By 2030, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) commits to replicating and scaling its goal of lighting the lives of 5 million people and supporting 5,000 entrepreneurs. LED street lighting and affordable household lighting supports the sustainable development goals. In particular, solar has potential as a leapfrog technology from kerosene for households across the Global South, improving health and economic outcomes with emission-free, pay-as-you-go lighting. Signify makes this announcement closely following a pre-Summit announcement committing the global LED and lighting industry leader to carbon neutral buildings and a 100% electric and hybrid lease fleet by 2030.

Decarbonizing Transportation Systems

Transportation is responsible for nearly a quarter of global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions — and that share is growing.

To realize global climate targets, it is imperative that the world shift to a zero-emission transportation fleet, while building more walkable and bikeable communities, investing in mass public transportation, electrifying all buses and passenger vehicles with clean, renewable energy, and moving toward low-emission heavy duty fleets.

At the Global Climate Action Summit, state, regional and city governments alongside businesses committed to this future. More than 60 jurisdictions committed to the ZEV Challenge. Another 23 businesses joined EV100. Cities committed their bus fleets to rapid transformation. Partnerships for purchasing were forged and promises made to massively scale-up electrification infrastructure.

Governors and Premiers from 12 States and Regions Commit to 100% ZEV Fleets by 2030

Elected leaders representing over 80 million people and more than 5% of total global GDP have pledged to shift to 100% zero-emission fleets by 2030 and to enact policies to accelerate the transition to zero-emission vehicles within their jurisdiction. This builds on and accelerates a commitment of 10 governors and premiers to ensure all vehicle sales are zero-emission by 2050 or earlier, unlocking GHG reductions of over 125 million tons CO2e per year in 2030 and over 1.5 billion tons CO2 per year in 2050.

Delta Electronics and Clif Bar have joined 21 major companies in the EV100, committing to accelerate the transition to 100% zero-emission vehicles by taking actions such as electrifying their fleets, encouraging their employees to drive ZEVs, and installing charging infrastructure on their properties.

Mayors Representing Over 34 million Citizens Commit to Green and Healthy Streets

Mayors from 12 cities representing over 34 million people committed to the Green and Healthy Streets Declaration, pledging to only procure zero-emission buses beginning no later than 2025 and introduce a zero-emission transportation district in a major part of their city by 2030. These cities join 14 already committed to the Declaration. More than 80,000 buses run on the streets of these 26 cities.

Mayors representing 409 cities in 47 U.S. states, launched the Climate Mayors Electric Purchasing Collaborative, a supported online portal offering municipalities across the country access to competitively bid electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. The portal aims to expedite and simplify the procurement process for clean transportation technologies for cities of all sizes, supported by expert technical assistance and bulk negotiated discounts. To mark the program launch, 20 cities and two counties committed to the purchase of 391 electric vehicles.

The Electrification Coalition will provide technical expertise to support cities in their fleet transition planning.

ChargePoint and EVBox Pledge to Build 3.5 Million New EV Charging Stations

Understanding the needed scale of infrastructure deployment to catalyze the electric vehicle revolution, the CEO of ChargePoint committed to building 2.5 million new charging stations and the CEO of EVBox committed to building 1 million charging stations by 2025. This commitment confirms their confidence in global trends toward electrification and demonstrates that they are stepping up to meet a growing demand, particularly in Europe and North America.

The Hydrogen Council is a 37-member global CEO initiative that aims to foster the role of hydrogen technologies in the global energy transition. At the Global Climate Action Summit, the Council announced a joint pledge that all hydrogen produced by council members used in transportation will be fully decarbonized by 2030. A 2017 study suggested that by 2050, hydrogen may make up 18% of final global energy demands.

The Port of Rotterdam, alongside the Ports of Antwerp, Barcelona, Hamburg, Los Angeles, and Vancouver, launched the World Ports Climate Action Program and committed to “take a strong role in climate and clean air action” by investing in supply-chain management technologies, advancing sustainable public policies, accelerating zero-emission solutions in-port, speeding efforts to decarbonize cargo-handling facilities, and developing infrastructure to make low-carbon fuels viable for maritime transport.

The Port of Rotterdam also pledged to move toward carbon neutrality in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

IKEA joined the EV100 and announced an additional commitment to ensure that last-mile delivery services will be 100% zero-emission by 2025. The company additionally pledged that by 2020, their services in Los Angeles, New York City, Shanghai, Paris and Amsterdam will be emission-free. By 2030, they also aim to reduce emissions from employee and customer travel to physical IKEA stores by 50%.

Southern California Edison (SCE) is pursuing the development of infrastructure for over 50,000 EV charging ports in their service territory by 2025. Under existing and future program approvals from the California Public Utilities Commission, SCE will provide infrastructure and rebates for a variety of charging station installations (e.g., Level 1, Level 2, DC Fast Charging, transit and heavy-duty vehicle charging) to support light-, medium-, and heavy-duty electric vehicles in Southern California. Their planned programs include targets for a significant portion of installations —at least 30%— to be in underserved, pollution-impacted communities in their territory, to bring cleaner air to all customers. SCE is committed to these objectives to play its part in supporting the electric vehicle adoption levels needed in California to help the state achieve its vital greenhouse gas emission and air quality goals in 2030 and beyond.

California and Shenzhen, in anticipation of the Global Climate Action Summit, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate to jointly address the barriers of implementation of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in pursuit of greenhouse gas reduction targets. The agreement hopes to foster collaboration to support the development of codes and standards, share lessons learned and best practice documentation related to hydrogen station installations and vehicle operations, endeavor to eliminate redundant or competing guidelines, and increase targeted audience awareness of technologies and infrastructure through consistent messaging where appropriate.

United Airlines is the first U.S.-based Carrier to Commit to Reductions

The San Francisco-based carrier announced a pledge to reduce their emissions by 50% by 2050 relative to 2005 levels, a first for a U.S.-based air carrier. The company plans to do this through efficiency measurers and biofuels, including the longest-distance biofuel flight from San Francisco to Zurich. The company estimates that this is equivalent to removing 4.5 million cars from the road.

Innovation and Inclusive Economic Growth

Businesses understand the economic opportunity and imperative of climate action.

To this end, in time for the Summit, 488 companies from 38 countries adopted emission reduction pathways in line with the science of the Paris Agreement. The Summit also saw a great breadth of actions and commitments from companies that included pledges toward physical plant resource efficiency and operations, commitments to ensure that climate action fosters decent jobs and protects workers, a prize for clean energy and transportation innovation, and a new platform for value chain resilience.

488 Companies Commit to Science-Based Targets

Over 480 companies in 38 countries have committed to or set science-based emissions reduction targets (SBTs) that align with the Paris Agreement’s goal to limit global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius.

Those companies have a combined market capitalization of nearly US $10 trillion (around one eighth of total global market capitalisation), comparable to the NASDAQ stock exchange. They are responsible through their own operations for more than 795 million metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions per year, roughly equal to the annual emissions of Germany. Nearly a fifth (17%) of Fortune Global 500 companies have now committed to set science-based emissions reduction targets. Since January, over 130 companies have joined the initiative, a 39% increase compared to the same period in 2017. The monthly rate of commitments to science-based targets has gone up from an average of 13 per month between February-August 2017, to an average of 18 per month between February-August 2018. There has been a surge in science-based target commitments in India, which has seen a four-fold increase in SBT commitments since January 2018 (up from 6 at the start of 2018, to 24 today). India now ranks fifth in terms of SBT commitments, after the USA (90), Japan (64), UK (51) and France (35).

A few science-based target commitments unveiled at the Summit include:

Apparel company Levi Strauss & Co. will work toward a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in all owned-and-operated facilities, and 40% reduction in emissions across the supply chain by 2025.

McDonald’s will partner with franchisees and suppliers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all restaurants and offices by 36%, and across the supply chain by 31% per metric ton of food and packaging, by 2030.

Indian companies Dalmia Cement and Ambuja Cement announced their respective commitments to setting a SBT, showing leadership and commitment even among heavy-emitting industries in emerging economies to setting Paris-aligned goals.

Solstice Energy took home $25,000 as the winner of the inaugural California Climate Cup, with companies Wheeli and EVMatch selected as the two runners-up. The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator and the California Clean Energy Fund teamed up for the first-ever California Climate Cup, a pitch competition featuring promising global start-ups in mobility and goods movement, energy/transportation nexus, and digital solutions for sustainable cities. Ten finalists pitched in front of a judging panel of top cleantech VCs and industry executives.

Starbucks’ CEO Kevin Johnson announce that Starbucks commits to design, build and renovate — and, importantly, operate— 10,000 greener stores globally by 2025. As the biggest builder of LEED stores in the world with 1,500 LEED-certified locations to date, Starbucks is developing a third-party audited open-source framework with experts and NGOs for the construction and operations of these buildings. The operational training and audit will focus on achieving energy and water efficiency, diverting waste, and building with responsible materials. Facilities will be 100% powered by renewables through investments in solar and wind projects; include technologies to deliver 25-30% efficiency gains for water and energy; and train employees as certified sustainability experts.

At the Summit, 21 companies announced the Step Up Declaration, a new alliance dedicated to harnessing the power of emerging technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions across all economic sectors and ensure a climate turning point by 2020.

The Just Transition Pledge for Cities launched a cooperation between C40 and the global labor movement, in which individual cities commit to social dialogue with workers and their unions as a part of the city’s climate strategy. The first signatories of the effort were Oslo and Vancouver.

Just Transition Pledge for Companies

Companies pledge to integrate just transition principles into procurement and development practices such as through social dialogue with workers and their unions; fundamental rights, including International Labor Organization (ILO) core labor standards and ILO occupational health and safety standards; social protection, including pension and health; and wage guarantees, including prevailing wage rates for skilled workers in the relevant industries.

Through the Pledge, renewable energy producers and developers pledge to create high road jobs and renewable energy buyers pledge to procure clean power from companies committed to high labor standards.

Coca Cola and Mars Incorporated became the inaugural members of the Climate-Resilient Value Chain Leaders Platform. The new initiative is part of a global effort to improve the ability of companies to monitor and diagnose physical climate risks, and to use that data to accelerate the adoption and implementation of climate resilience measures which are essential for safeguarding business viability while simultaneously benefiting communities along the value chain. Through technical support and collaboration with experts, the platform will use collective action to catalyze efficiency and scale in resilient supply chain solutions.

Forests, Agriculture and Land Use

Forests, agriculture and the land sector must play a significant role in global mitigation efforts. In many countries, particularly in the tropics, deforestation and degradation are dominant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. But the land sector also has the unique potential to act as a carbon sink, taking carbon from the atmosphere and storing it.

For the Global Climate Action Summit, a powerful Leaders Group and a new alliance linking over 100 NGOs, businesses, state and local governments, indigenous groups and local communities was launched to catalyze action across the forest, food and land agendas and to unlock the potential of past commitments to deforestation, restoration, and agriculture.

From public-private cooperation between states and some of the world’s largest corporations to a new agreement of principles for engaging with indigenous peoples, from a 17 U.S. state collaboration on increasing carbon capture from working and natural lands, to grants for local projects around the world, the Summit energized the conversation around the importance of this sector in global climate action and fostered partnerships to take this work forward and affect real change on the ground.

Governors from the member states and provinces of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF Task Force) adopted the landmark Rio Branco Declaration (RBD) at the GCF Task Force Annual Meeting in Rio Branco, Brazil. The RBD commits GCF Task Force members to reducing deforestation and promoting sustainable, low-emissions economic development across state and provincial jurisdictions while forging partnerships and sharing benefits with indigenous peoples and local communities. The GCF Task Force states and provinces recognize that indigenous peoples and local, forest-based communities often lead the way in building and maintaining successful, territorial approaches to forest conservation and low-emission development. For their part, indigenous and local community leaders recognize that working with governments at all levels is critical in their efforts to secure territorial and human rights and benefits for their communities from their forest conservation and low-emission development leadership. The members of the GCF Task Force, indigenous peoples, and local community leaders endorse the Principles of Collaboration.

First Round of Projects under the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF) Approved to Support Jurisdictional REDD+ Strategies and Investment Plans

The Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF) in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and with support from the Government of Norway, announced the first 31 jurisdictions to receive funding totaling over $10 million to support jurisdictional REDD+ strategies and investment plans during the GCF Annual Meeting on 11 September in San Francisco. The range of projects approved reflects the diversity of the GCF members, while responding to local contexts and bringing a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder approach to low-emission development.

At the Global Climate Action Summit, 8 GCF members signed the Declaration of San Francisco, a pledge by Governors in Amazon states to affirm their commitment to take action against climate change in their jurisdictions.

At the Global Climate Action Summit, Earth Innovation Institute (EII), the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), and the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force released their “State of Jurisdictional Sustainability: Synthesis for Practitioners and Policymakers” study, a systematic assessment of jurisdictional “experiments” across the Tropics to draw on early lessons. The study evaluates progress towards low-emission, sustainable development, including goals and commitments, monitoring and reporting systems, multi-stakeholder governance platforms, and innovative policies and initiatives that are core elements of jurisdictional sustainability.

The Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative is building a shared vision among indigenous peoples, NGOs, the philanthropic community, social entrepreneurs and governments toward establishing a bi-national protected region – off-limits to industrial scale resource extraction, and governed in accordance with traditional indigenous principles of cooperation and harmony that foster a mutually enhancing human-Earth relationship. The Initiative offers a multi-faceted strategy on climate change through working to:

Protect indigenous territories in the region that encompasses a continuous mosaic of 60 million acres of rainforest and contains some 3.8 billion metric tons of carbon (on average 66 metric tons of carbon/acre of forest).

Advance indigenous forest stewardship of these lands as the most effective strategy to protect the rainforest and avoid significant emissions from unchecked deforestation.

Forge a sustainable path that keeps undeveloped fossil fuel reserves in the ground, starting with the Sacred Headwaters. This would result in the avoidance of some 1.9 billion metric tons of C02 emissions.

The Initiative is led by Amazonian indigenous federations CONFENIAE (Ecuador) and AIDESEP (Peru) in partnership with the Pachamama Alliance, Amazon Watch, and Terra Mater, and aims to advance bioregional and indigenous-led governance and stewardship of this vast region.

17 States of the U.S. Climate Alliance Natural and Working Lands Initiative to Integrate Lands within Greenhouse Gas Pathways

The 17 states of the U.S. Climate Alliance joined together to answer the Natural and Working Lands Challenge (#NWLChallenge) by committing their states to maintaining natural and working lands as a net carbon sink. These states pledge to integrate actions and pathways for natural and working lands carbon into state greenhouse gas mitigation plans by 2020.

GEF Commits to $500 Million in Grant Funds to Food, Land Use, and Resilience

The Global Environment Facility made a $500 million financial commitment in grant funds to Food, Land Use, and Resilience (FOLUR), per the approval by the GEF Council in June 2018. The program is designed at an intersection of landscape approach, to which sub-national governments are key, and value chain approach, to which businesses are key, and is part of a global multi-stakeholder initiative, the Food and Land Use Coalition led by Paul Polman.

It is designed in partnership with many diverse stakeholders, to which sub-national governments and businesses are critical. Pilot programs in Colombia and Indonesia show the critical involvement of non-state actors (subnational governments and businesses) as well as of global players. FOLUR will address a root cause of climate change by catalyzing food systems change, which in turn has impacts on other key global environmental challenges such as loss of biodiversity, land and water.

Cerrado Manifesto

Over 70 global supply chain actors including Tesco, Marks & Spencer, McDonald’s, Ahold Delhaize, Unilever, Walmart and the Consumer Goods Forum pledged to work with local and international stakeholders to halt deforestation and native vegetation loss in Brazil’s Cerrado biome. These companies are moving from commitment to implementation and will be releasing their action plans in the near future. Additionally, these leaders are now joined by 40+ investors like Green Century Capital Management and the Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (FAIRR) investor network, collectively managing over $2.8 trillion, to achieve these goals. The Manifesto is an example of a multi-sector, multi-stakeholder approach to avoid the loss of a highly biodiverse ecosystem that stores the equivalent of 13.7 billion tons of CO2 and provides water to eight of Brazil’s 12 water basins.

Walmart, in pursuit of meeting its Project Gigaton ambitions, and in partnership with Unilever, announced the development of a platform that will facilitate their suppliers’ engagement in jurisdictional approaches as part of their work on Forests — supporting their Scope 3 Science-Based Target for climate.

This platform will be developed in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund, who will prioritize high-risk jurisdictions and help identify legitimate efforts on the ground.

As an example of how the platform will work, Unilever —an anchor partner and supplier to Walmart— committed to support the restoration of approximately 4,000 hectares in the Sugut, Kinabatangan, and Tawau river basins in Sabah, Malaysia. This work on restoration will complement the broader jurisdictional initiative’s work in the region working with palm oil and pulp producers and forest protection and advance both deforestation and climate goals. The Sabah example is just the beginning of more engagement to come in key forested jurisdictions who are committed to becoming deforestation-free under the New York Declaration on Forests.

In June 2018 Norway, Germany and Ecuador entered a US $50 million partnership to protect 13.6 million hectares of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests. At the Global Climate Action Summit, this coalition of subnational governments, private companies, water funds, and producer groups in the palm, cocoa and coffee sectors committed to a host of efforts to enhance action to reduce deforestation in Ecuadorian rainforests.

The Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force Announces First Round of $25 Million in Grants to Subnational Actors

The Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force announced $25 million from the GCF Fund to help states meet their ambitious commitments to climate action. The GCF Task Force includes tropical and non-tropical states and provinces, adding up to over one-third of the world’s tropical forests, who are leading subnational efforts to build robust and effective jurisdictional programs to protect and restore forests and enhance rural livelihoods.

The GCF Governors are working on the implementation of low-carbon and sustainable land-use plans at the jurisdictional level in contributing to global efforts for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, for instance through the 2018 Sustainability Agreement for the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, public-private partnerships for restoring and protecting degraded and undermanaged landscapes in achieving sustainable supply chain initiatives, including efforts to engage indigenous peoples and local communities in sustainable landscape stewardship. The Task Force will soon start leveraging public and private funding for the development and implementation of jurisdictional strategies and investment plans, including the development of innovating financial mechanisms and investment tools for sustainable jurisdictions.

FoodShot’s Groundbreaker Prize

Seven globally-recognized funders will invest in and accelerate scientific and technological breakthroughs that will improve soil health at scale. A healthy soil operating system will lead to more nutritious food, reduced agrochemical inputs, increased yields and higher farmer profits, and healthier land and water ecosystems. By storing carbon, soil is also a key tool in fighting climate change. Healthy soil sets the framework for a food system capable of sustainably producing healthy, nutrient-dense food that is accessible to all.

FoodShot’s Groundbreaker Prize is currently over $500,000, making it the largest prize in the food/agriculture space, and its debt/equity partners are committing millions of dollars in investment. FoodShot’s global partnership represents a collaborative, innovative platform to use aligned capital and post-investment capacity resources to address key food system challenges.

The James Beard Foundation launched a new training program to be used in universities and culinary training programs across the United States that will target culinary school instructors to train chefs in food loss and food waste.

The Cool Food Pledge, supported and facilitated by Sodexo, aims to enable food providers to commit to shifting diets in a way that enhances their reputation, guide them on the necessary metrics to track, and help them build a successful strategy for change.

The Cool Food Pledge is a global platform that aims to ultimately make setting food-GHG reduction targets and sourcing lower-GHG foods standard business practice. For cities, it provides an additional strategy for improving health/nutrition outcomes and reducing Scope 3 emissions—initially through direct food procurement which will be tracked and measured, but ultimately influencing consumption patterns of urban citizens indirectly

Additional key partners include UN Environment; the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance, a collaboration of leading global cities working to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80-100% by 2050 or sooner; and Health Care Without Harm, an organization working to transform health care worldwide.

The US states of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, California, and the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver (BC) have committed to halve food waste by 2030 and to quantify the emissions impact of food waste in their jurisdictions. This approach has the potential to reduce 25 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year from the often-overlooked food sector.

Announced by California and France, the Global Soil Health Challenge calls on national and sub-national governments to include ambitious programs of action on soil health in their Nationally Determined Contributions submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2020 and in sub-national climate initiatives as part of broader climate action plans. The signatories agree to promote the development of healthy soils within their respective geographies and report on their progress at the 2019 UN Climate Summit in New York. The Global Soil Health Challenge is part of a suite of climate-smart agriculture practices aimed to strengthen efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon on natural and working lands, including agriculture.

Eighteen funders joined together to reaffirm their commitment to supporting efforts to promote forest restoration, the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, and sustainable land use, and pledged $459 million in grants through 2022 toward these efforts. Understanding that 30% of emissions are currently sequestered by natural and working lands and have the potential to sequester an additional 30% of emissions, these funders announced their intent to continue placing philanthropic resources toward land use policies and finance projects that recognize the role of forests and sustainable land-use in supporting rural livelihoods and alleviating poverty, projects that enhance indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ land rights, projects that expand conservation areas, and agricultural production and investments that support a transition to a sustainable food system.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture and University of California Cooperative Extension announce a $1.1 million partnership for technical assistance to support growers to implement climate-smart agriculture practices.

Four Per Thousand: Soils for Food Security and Climate

New signees joined the 4 PER 1000: Soils for Food Security and Climate initiative, part of the Paris-Lima Action Plan which comprises an international research and scientific cooperation program and an action plan aimed at increasing soil organic carbon sequestration, in order to increase food security and mitigate and adapt to climate change. Its overarching goal is to assist contributing countries and non-state organizations in developing evidence-based projects, actions and programs to promote and encourage actions toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions through protecting and increasing soil organic carbon stocks, the target rate of a 4/1000 (0.4%) per year being an aspirational goal.

Cities and the Built Environment

Cities are where people live. They also consume ⅔ of the world’s energy and produce 70% of global emissions. They are also at heightened risk from the impacts of a changing climate.

With this in mind, cities demonstrated strong leadership at the Global Climate Action Summit, bringing pledges for action across a number of sectors – from buildings and planning to public transportation and walkability, from landfills and waste to the intersection of climate action and equity.

They were joined by developers and corporations that understood the need to transition all buildings to net-zero-emission buildings.

Zero Waste Declaration

25 cities, states and regions — including Auckland, Catalonia, Copenhagen, Dubai, London, Milan, Montreal, New York City, Paris, Philadelphia, Rotterdam, San Francisco, San Jose, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C. — have pledged to take the following actions to reduce their 2015 food waste metrics by 2030: Reduce municipal solid waste generation per capita by at least 15%, decrease the amount of municipal solid waste disposed to landfill and incineration by at least 50%, and increase the diversion rate away from landfill and incineration to at least 70%.

132 million tonnes of waste will be diverted from landfills or incineration by 2030 as 25 cities and state and regional governments accounting for almost 150 million citizens commit to move toward zero waste. By 2030, at least 15% less waste will be produced by each citizen in these cities, states and regions, and the amount of waste sent to landfill or incineration will be halved compared to 2015 levels, with at least 70% of waste diverted. An additional 90 cities are reporting their commitments to address the GHG impact of their waste systems through the one planet charter. Reducing waste generation and improving waste and materials management can avoid 4-6 gigatonnes of Co2e, representing 15-20% of global mitigation potential.

38 signatories including 22 cities, 12 businesses, and four state and regional governments have committed to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions in new and existing buildings.

Reducing buildings emissions to zero in just the 22 C40 cities signatories is equivalent to an annual emissions savings of 190 mega tonnes CO2e, or the emissions of 47 coal-fired power stations. They will achieve this by enacting regulations or planning policy to ensure that new buildings operate at net-zero carbon by 2030, and all buildings by 2050.

The 12 companies representing U.S. $22.95 billion in revenue that are committed to owning, occupying and developing only assets that are net-zero carbon in operation by 2030 account for portfolios of over 10.7 million square meters, a total area of buildings that is over eight times the size of the financial district of San Francisco. An additional 718 cities globally have made commitments to increase the efficiency of new and existing buildings.

30 Cities Commit to Elevate Equity and Community-led Projects in their Climate Planning

Mayors from 30 cities representing close to 100 million people pledge to increase action on community-led development, inclusive climate action and infrastructure projects that achieve major environmental, health, social and economic benefits – especially in low-income and vulnerable communities – by incorporating equity into their climate plans and planning process.

Climate action from mid-sized cities is crucial. In this declaration, Australian Capital Territory and Sacramento teamed up to place a call to action to cities worldwide. At least a third of the world’s population call mid-sized cities their home, and are already observing the adverse effects of global warming. Small enough to be nimble and responsive, mid-sized cities are large enough to attract major partners in building carbon zero societies.

The Pledge:

Endorse a target of our city becoming carbon zero by 2050 or earlier.

Actively pursue policies that achieve this end, including setting interim emissions targets to give business certainty, measure our progress, and hold us to account.

Exchange officers, knowledge and experience to build capacity.

Make our individual and collective voices for strong and enduring action on climate change heard at national and international levels.

Include and protect the most vulnerable, so that they share fully in the benefits of a zero carbon world.

Encourage other cities to join us in this declaration in order to create powerful alliances of effective climate action by mid-sized cities around the globe.

Report our own progress against these pledges in no less than two years’ time, working with and within existing subnational groups fostering effective, enduring climate action.

Bright Green Cities, a collaboration between GE and SDCL, announced a programme to save US $1 billion in energy costs in health care through green and resilient infrastructure solutions at the same time as combating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

GE Distributed Power and Sustainable Development Capital (SDCL) are working together to deliver an innovative programme across health care globally, utilizing best in class technology. Initial flagship projects have been delivered in London, New York and Dublin with projects happening imminently in other global cities including Toronto and Kuala Lumpur.

Carbon Smart Building Declaration Launched

More than 40 organizations signed the Carbon Smart Building Declaration highlighting the importance of built environment in climate action.

Google Earth announced the beta launch of it’s Environmental Insights Explorer, a new tool designed to help local governments and policymakers make informed investments in green solutions. Built in partnership with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, the tool enables users to estimate carbon emissions from transportation and buildings, rooftop solar energy potential, and climate forecasts, using NASA climate modeling and Google’s proprietary data. More than 9,000 cities have made commitments to comply with the Paris Agreement, yet less than 20% of these have completed greenhouse gas inventories. This tool helps lower the cost of an inventory to get key analytics into decision-maker hands.

Transformative Climate Finance

Climate action relies on investments to develop, incubate and scale-up the technologies to decarbonize the global economy. To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, an additional trillion dollars of investment is needed per year toward these clean technologies to meet global targets.

At the Global Climate Action Summit, a wide range of new commitments were made, representing significant new capital mobilization from the public, private and philanthropic sectors. The Investor Agenda was formally launched bringing together nearly 400 investors managing US $32 trillion of assets firmly focused on accelerating and scaling-up financial flows into climate action and building a more sustainable, low-carbon economy. Other jurisdictions, companies and financiers brought commitments to the provision of green bonds, early capital for new innovations, pledges toward divestment and philanthropic grant resources for global action.

Investors are moving the dial toward climate action and helping to unlock commitments across the board to tackle global warming.

The Investor Agenda was formally launched, bringing together nearly 400 investors managing US $32 trillion in assets to accelerate and scale up the actions that are critical to tackling climate change and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. It is a comprehensive agenda for investors to manage climate risks and capture low-carbon opportunities, and a mechanism to report on their actions in four key focus areas: Investment, Corporate Engagement, Investor Disclosure and Policy Advocacy.

The Irish Environment Minister Denis Naughten provided insights on the role of the private sector in climate action and achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement in relation to the world’s first national fossil fuel divestment bill passed by Ireland.

CalSTRS Commits to Additional $1 Billion in Low-Carbon Index Strategy, $400 Million to Renewables, and Greater Engagement with Portfolio Companies

One of the two largest public pension funds in the U.S., CalSTRS committed to several new climate initiatives at the Global Climate Action Summit, including:

By the end of 2018, CalSTRS expects to invest an additional $1 billion into a low-carbon index strategy, bringing the total amount invested in low-carbon index strategies up to approximately $2.6 billion.

Also by the end of 2018, CalSTRS expects to invest an additional $750 million into its ESG-themed Public Equity portfolio, bringing the total amount invested in this strategy up to approximately $2 billion. This portfolio invests in companies that are supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Additionally, CalSTRS recently committed an additional $400 million toward renewable energy investments in its Infrastructure portfolio. This commitment is part of an expected total allocation of approximately $1.5 billion in renewable energy in the Infrastructure portfolio.

CalSTRS will also be very active in engaging Public Equity companies on climate change risk management. CalSTRS is part of the Climate Action 100+ initiative, acting as a lead engager with six companies and as a supporting engager at five other companies. CalSTRS has also committed to engaging at least 20 companies this year around integrating the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) guidance into their climate risk strategies. Finally, CalSTRS is part of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Investor Advisory Group and will be engaging a number of companies on adopting SASB guidance into disclosures around issues such as climate change.

Global Green Bonds Partnership Launched with Ten Partners

The Global Green Bond Partnership (GGBP) launched at the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS). This new partnership will support efforts of sub-national entities such as cities, states, and regions, corporations and private companies, and financial institutions to accelerate the issuance of green bonds.

The founding members of the Global Green Bond Partnership include the World Bank, IFC – a member of the World Bank Group, Amundi, European Investment Bank, Climate Bonds Initiative, Ceres, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM) and the Low Emissions Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS GP).

The Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX) joined the U.S. State Treasurers of California, New Mexico and Rhode Island, the cities of Asheville and San Francisco – California, King County – Washington, Australian pension fund Local Government Super (LGS) and financial firms Global New Energy Finance and R3 Returns as founding signatories to the Green Bond Pledge.

Private Philanthropies Commit $4 Billion in Climate Grants Over Next Five Years

29 philanthropies, including the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Sea Change Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Packard Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation, have pledged $4 billion in climate funding over the next five years to combat climate change. This is the largest-ever private philanthropic investment focused exclusively on climate action.

NYC Pension Investment Program to Double Investments into Climate Solutions by 2021

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announce that they will double NYC’s pension investments in clean energy and climate solutions by 2021, bringing the total to more than $4 billion, or 2% of the city’s total assets. With this announcement, New York City becomes the first U.S. city to set such an ambitious goal, and is demonstrating how municipalities can take the lead on fighting climate change.

PKA, One of Denmark’s Largest Pension Funds, Commits 10% of AUM to Support the Low-Carbon Transition

Peter Damgaard Jensen, CEO of Pensionskassernes Administration A/S (PKA) and Chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) committed PKA, one of Denmark’s largest pension funds, to working to align its $43 billion investment portfolio with the goals of the Paris Agreement, including committing to ensuring 10% of all investments PKA makes directly support the low-carbon transition.

In 2018, More Than 1,300 New Companies, States, Cities and Regions Disclosed Their Emissions for the First Time

This year, over 1,300 new companies, cities, states and regions have stepped up and begun mapping their journey to a low-carbon, climate-resilient future. 144 cities and 41 states and regions disclosed for the first time this year.

There has been impressive growth in the number of newly disclosing cities both in Europe (44) and Latin America (46)

9 states, including 32.5 million inhabitants and a combined GDP 54% of Italy’s overall GDP now respond to CDP – five more than in 2017. Those disclosing for the first time in 2018 include: Abruzzo, Piedmont, and Tuscany.

The 1,200 companies disclosing for the first time this year come from more than 60 countries, including Ecuador, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Republic of Korea, and Vietnam. The best represented countries are the United States (242), China (182), Brazil (139) and Japan (129).

The Wells Fargo Renewable Energy and Environment Finance Group has teamed with the bank’s Payments, Virtual Solutions, and Innovations group to leverage their new Wells Fargo API Gateway Developer Portal to provide an easy-to-use, secure, and cost-saving method for renewable energy financing data exchange. This new technology aims to lower the cost of data collection and management for financial institutions and the customers they serve, making renewable energy an even more attractive investment and meeting reporting needs as demand for financing of these ventures grows. This secure, accessible, and scalable solution can also be applied to information exchange necessary to promote green bond, climate bond, SDG bond, and other sustainability bond ecosystems by boosting access to real-time, expert-vetted information necessary to increase investor confidence, ease issuer administrative responsibilities and add value and gravitas to this market.

Global Environment Facility Announces $500 Million Commitment to Grants for Food, Land Use and Restoration

The Global Environment Facility (GEF) announced a half billion US dollar financial commitment in new grant funds for food, land use, and restoration projects.

European Investment Bank Commits to Financing $1.4 Trillion in Renewable Energy to Reach Infrastructure Targets of the E.U. 2030 Plan as the American Council on Renewable Energy Targets $1 Trillion of Renewables Investments in U.S. by 2030

The European Investment Bank announced they are ready to lead the charge toward implementing the E.U.’s 2030 targets by committing to financing $1.4 trillion in renewable energy. This will enable the network infrastructure to meet Europe’s targets. In the U.S., members of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) have committed to a campaign for an additional $1 trillion investment in the United States.

Joint Statement of the Supporting Institutions of the Climate Action in Financial Institutions Initiative

42 financial institutions representing over $13 trillion in assets announced a commitment to helping cities, states, and regions finance climate action and organized around four new priority action areas. Convened by Mainstreaming Climate Action this effort also highlighted more than 40 specific instances of support for subnational action by public and private financial institutions.

Institutions are advancing four priority areas for the mobilization of finance and technical support, with a special focus on supporting subnational climate action:

The vertical integration of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) at the city and subnational level;

The Global Urbis City Climate Challenge was launched. This new challenge is an ambitious global initiative that will provide cities on a global scale with financing and technical assistance to mobilize significant private investment. It is a unique partnership between the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Global Covenant of Mayors, the single coalition of more than 7,400 cities all over the world.

Announcing a major new allocation to the Green Cities Framework (GrCF), which will deliver a comprehensive and systematic approach to address key climate and environmental challenges facing cities across all EBRD countries of operations. Its initial window supported cities in the EBRD region to measure and benchmark their environmental performance and to prioritize response actions and investments to address their most pressing environmental challenges. The GrCF offers a systematic method for addressing these problems through targeted planning, capacity building and investment to improve cities’ environmental performance in those areas that are most critical. The critical elements in the GrCF are i) linking the policy and strategic planning support and ii) technical assistance to encourage iii) green infrastructure investments.

$400 Million Committed to North American Resilient Infrastructure Consortium and Fund

The Summit launched a partnership between the State of California and the North American Building Trades Union to scale up investments and high road standards for clean energy and climate resilient infrastructure. This partnership is committing $400 million to seed the new North American Resilient Infrastructure Fund to accelerate and leverage private sector investments in infrastructure, including new investment opportunities that can support large-scale resilient infrastructure projects that incorporate nature-based solutions to climate resilience.

SHINE Campaign Next Generation of Energy Access Finance Mobilization Commits to $1.5 Billion Over 2 Years

Ten Investors announced the creation of the next generation of funds to end energy poverty by deploying $1.5 billion in the next two years with $500 million already raised. These funds in the past three years have deployed 300 million in capital.

Five New Catalytic Investment Strategies Will Mobilize More than $630 Million into Clean Energy and Resilience

Five new and innovative funds and investment vehicles were announced targeting a range of low-carbon investment opportunities: from financing renewable energy in emerging markets to climate resilience investment, to providing support for early-stage clean technology companies in the U.S. These strategies will mobilize $630 million in new investments across the globe. Announcers included: the California Clean Energy Fund with the cKers Finance sustainable energy bond and the Microgrid Catalytic Investment Fund, the PRIME Coalition, Lightsmith Group, Powerhouse, and SunFunder.

ReNew Power India announced that it will deliver new electricity connections through clean energy microgrids for 100 villages over 10 years to more than 30,000 households resulting in 150,000 people in India gaining access to electricity for the first time.

During its chairmanship of the Least Developed Countries Group, Ethiopia has championed the LDC Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Initiative for Sustainable Development, known as LDC REEEI. This Initiative is the result of a call by LDC Ministers for a dedicated action to respond to the special circumstances of the LDCs. LDC REEEI puts forward a vision of energy for people-centered development that can inspire complementary efforts across the world. All countries must capitalize on the availability of affordable and sustainable renewable energy solutions, and promote models of sharing energy that empower communities to take charge of their own futures. Under the mandate of LDC Ministers, the LDC REEEI aims to support LDCs to achieve their development aspirations by addressing three overarching goals:

100% access to sufficient, affordable, modern and clean energy by all citizens in LDCs by 2030;

100% electricity from renewable energy sources in all LDCs by 2050 that caters to all needs of their citizens, social services and industries; and

100% utilization of energy efficiency potentials along the value chain through full implementation of best practice measures and planning by 2040.

Bank of the West Commits to $1 Billion in New Clean Energy Investments

Bank of the West committed to new investments totaling $1 billion for renewable and clean energy, with a goal to advance energy transition and build sustainable communities. This commitment includes a pledge to reduce its carbon footprint by 25% and operate at carbon neutrality by 2020; to invest $500 million in financing for renewable and clean energy; to place $200 million in investments and loans for energy efficient city infrastructure and housing; and loan $300 million to help people access electric and low-emission vehicles.

Short-Lived Climate Pollutants

Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCPs) such as methane, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and black carbon are pollutants that linger in the atmosphere for a shorter time than carbon dioxide, but while there, cause a tremendous amount of warming. In order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, it is imperative that we significantly reduce these emissions alongside carbon dioxide, and prioritize their mitigation as reducing SCLPs today buys more time to reduce carbon later.

At the Global Climate Action Summit, jurisdictions and companies from around the globe pledged to transition from HFCs, regulate methane, and ensure that the global community has the data resources needed to take pragmatic steps toward their reduction.

Governor Edmund G Brown Jr. announced that California would be developing its own climate change pollutant-monitoring satellite in partnership with San Francisco earth-imaging company Planet Labs.

States Regulatory Transition Away from Potent HFCs

New York, Maryland, and Connecticut have announced that they will develop regulations to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). These states, all members of the United States Climate Alliance, announced new joint commitments and progress on climate policies, ranging from $1.4 billion in electric vehicle funding to closer climate collaboration with Canada and Mexico.

Other states are considering adopting similar rules, which are supported by several regulated businesses and a broad range of stakeholders. Through the U.S. Climate Alliance and pursuant to the SLCP Challenge, states are working to align regulations and ensure a quick and effective transition away from super polluting HFCs in the U.S., in a manner that supports American companies and jobs. The U.S. Climate Alliance has committed to accelerating the replacement of climate warming HFCs through voluntary and regulatory approaches.

The State of Virginia announced it will develop regulations to reduce methane emissions from the natural gas system. It joins Colorado, California, and other states in regulating methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. The announcement comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes to rollback federal rules limiting methane emissions from new and modified oil and gas wells.

The U.S Climate Alliance released the SLCP Challenge to Action Roadmap, which provides a framework that has the potential to reduce collective Alliance SLCP emissions by as much as 40-50% by 2030, and several goals to reduce SLCP emissions from major sources. States also committed to developing and implementing state-specific strategies to support this goal.

This Roadmap was an answer to the June 2018 SLCP Challenge, in which states committed to reduce SLCP emissions in line with the needs of the Paris Agreement, and called on the rest of the world to do the same. The U.S. Climate Alliance will continue working with other jurisdictions and businesses to get them to accept the SLCP Challenge and strengthen action to cut SLCP emissions in line with the need and opportunity.

California joined the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) to reduce short-lived climate pollutants as the first subnational jurisdiction to become a full member of the coalition. CCAC is a voluntary partnership of governments, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, and others committed to protecting the climate and improving air quality through actions to reduce SLCP emissions. It is the preeminent global body focused on addressing SLCPs, representing 60 countries (“state partners”) and over 100 additional “non-state partners” and “actors.”

Ministers and partners of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition committed to help develop the full potential of the mitigation of short-lived climate pollutant emissions to supplement and enhance scaled-up actions on CO2, helping to avoid 0.6 degrees-Celsius of predicted global warming by 2050, making a very significant contribution toward achieving the Paris Agreement temperature goal, and avoiding over 50% of the predicted warming in the Arctic by 2050.

California, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, World Resources Institute, and the Environmental Defense Fund have launched a new public-private partnership that will develop data sharing protocols and user-friendly interfaces to integrate data from multiple sources — including data provided from continuous earth monitoring satellites, aircraft over flights and other terrestrial sources — and make it publicly available to enable methane mitigation. The Climate Data Initiative will enable the best, most up-to-date information from existing, announced, and planned satellites and other sources to be used to quickly identify and mitigate methane leaks and for other climate-related activities.

Businesses and non-profits — including Air Conditioning Contractors of America, Daiken Applied Americas, Goodman Manufacturing, Ingersoll Rand, Lennox International, Nortek Global HVAC LLC, Trane Inc., United Technologies Corporation – Carrier, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Chemours Company, Honeywell International, Inc.— announced support for state regulations to adopt the Significant New Alternatives Program Rules 20 and 21, as well as additional steps to develop market certainty throughout the U.S. and ensure an effective transition away from HFCs where lower impact alternatives are available.

The proposal goes beyond the SNAP 20 and 21 rules, and supports requirements to limit the climate impact of refrigerants used in new air conditioners and chillers by 2023 and 2024, respectively. Collectively, these steps and others proposed by California represent a complete framework for transitioning away from HFCs in the United States. Given the global framework for transitioning away from HFCs under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, but uncertainty in the U.S., business and state commitments are critical to fulfilling this global commitment. These announcements demonstrate that industry in the U.S. is behind stronger regulation of these high potential global warming forcers.

Resilience

Global warming is happening today, faster and stronger than expected. Already intensified storms and wildfires, more persistent droughts and creeping sea level rise are changing the shape of daily life. As the world mitigates further impacts, jurisdictions and companies are also rising to the challenge to increase resilience to the impacts that are here.

The Summit brought together jurisdictions, communities and companies who are finding ways to ensure they are ready for the next disaster and prepared for the long-term impacts of a changing climate. From new financing mechanisms for temperate forest restoration and resilience to funds for resilience in sub-Saharan Africa, there are efforts globally ready to scale to protect communities and commerce.

World’s First Forest Resilience Bond

The Yuba County Water Agency (YCWA) just announced it will make a $1.5 million cost-share contribution to help launch the world’s first Forest Resilience Bond through a pilot project with Blue Forest Conservation. Through Blue Forest Conservation and the World Resources Institute, the U.S. Forest Service and National Forest Foundation will deploy various forest management techniques, including different methods of forest thinning, meadow restoration, prescribed burns, and invasive plant treatment.

Researchers will then monitor the impacts on water content and quality in the watershed to quantify exactly how forest health benefits watersheds, which could help spark additional investment in forest management techniques in the future. The pilot project is designed to protect 15,000 acres within the north Yuba watershed. The community will also be the first to reach the state’s requirement for urban area levees to be certified at the 200-year level.

Namibia announced a new revenue source through the introduction of environmental levies through the Environmental Fiscal Reform policies that will generate around U.S. $11 million per annum to finance climate change and ecosystem related interventions in the country.

West Coast Governors Sign Regional Resiliency Effort

Governors Jerry Brown of California and Jay Inslee of Washington announced on behalf of the Pacific Coast Collaborative a new effort to strengthen climate resilience. This effort will facilitate cross-jurisdiction learning and collaboration on climate resilience for local communities and infrastructure. The need to enhance resiliency has taken on new urgency in light of unprecedented wildfires and intensifying climate-fueled natural disasters across the West Coast this summer. Pacific Coast Collaborative members will identify successful programs and approaches that are leading to enhanced resilience outcomes and specific opportunities for regional collaboration on key issues such as: mobilization of public and private resources to increase community-level climate resilience, integration of climate resilience into jurisdiction-level policies, and infrastructure finance, among others.

Accelerating Climate Ambition Together

Climate action relies on everyone rising to the occasion and doing the hard work of decarbonization. At the Summit –from voters to jurisdictions, businesses, nonprofits, faith communities, and more – we saw the world step up, ready for more action.

Here are a few of those coalitions and movements:

We Are Still In Announces 300 New Actions by Signatories

As a result of the We Are Taking Action Campaign, members of the We Are Still In (WASI) coalition detailed new plans to further reduce emissions in their states, businesses, and institutions. Since April 2018, nearly 900 coalition members submitted plans and detailed 300 new commitments to increase climate action. Fifty of those new commitments are related to renewable energy and electric vehicles, and several include the intention to collaborate across sectors. Sixty members pledge to work with coalition partners on renewable energy and energy efficiency, proving the model of WASI as an accelerator for cross-sectoral collaboration.

We Are Still In has nearly tripled in size since its June 2017 launch. Formed in response to President Trump’s announced plan to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the coalition now numbers over 3,500 institutions across government, the private sector, faith communities and higher education institutions in all 50 states. Collectively, the members in WASI represent nearly half of the U.S. population (more than 157 million Americans) and half of the country’s GDP ($9.46 trillion). This year, WASI mobilized the ‘We Are Taking Action’ campaign to gather climate action plans and elicit new commitments from its members.

21 American health care systems committed to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The health care sector–America’s largest employer and a growth industry–is the latest sector to join the “We Are Still In” coalition, strengthening the message to the world that the United States is still committed to the Paris Agreement. The first 19 systems to sign onto We Are Still In represent 763 hospitals, 784,778 employees, and 167.2 billion dollars in revenue across 39 states.

The We Are Still In coalition formed in June 2017 in response to the current administration’s plans to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. With the addition of the 19 health care systems it now counts more than 3,000 businesses, state, and local leaders, universities and other organizations from all 50 states among its ranks. The 19 American health care systems include:

Scientists Issue Declaration of Collaboration and Purpose at Science to Action Day

Participants at Science to Action Day reaffirmed the active roles that scientists from all fields will continue to play as partners in ambitious climate action.

The Summary: Coping with and minimizing the unprecedented and already visible challenges posed by human-caused climate change remains an enormous challenge. To manage climate change – and it is still manageable – we need to tap into the full measure of human ingenuity and capability. This includes the sciences. As scientists and members of institutions engaged in science, we commit to working as respectful partners to tackle climate change, offering our insights alongside other expertise as part of a collaborative approach to address the challenges of climate change. This commitment is offered to all communities, of all sizes, in all parts of the planet – from the smallest villages to the largest metropolises – and to all levels of governance from village council to international unions. We will realize this commitment by inviting all communities and all people to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from scientific work related to climate change – working with the full scope of humanity to set priorities for new scientific research while also maximizing the use and usability of existing scientific knowledge.

The Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the State of California released a statement pledging to build regular dialogue between California and Chinese subnational counterparts to discuss critical issues of mutual interest.

A broad coalition pledged to grow the coalition around climate education globally. As the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change says in Article 6, education contributes to the solutions being developed to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change.

“The solutions to climate change are also the paths to a safer, healthier, cleaner and more prosperous future for all. To see this and to understand what needs to be done requires a sharp and sustained focus on education, training and public awareness in all countries and at all levels of government, society, and enterprise.”

A community of educational and science partners have organized supporting resources and programs for those who want to teach climate and energy science, backed by some of the most experienced professional educators, scientists, and engineers. The resources provide teachers with tools to educate students about climate and energy science, develop the skills to take action, and reevaluate teaching methods.

The steering committee members, participants and associated organizations of the GCAS affiliate event Education: Key to Long-Term Climate Action Success will work toward fostering climate-literate advocates across the world through expanding environmental and climate education, workforce development opportunities, and community engagement. They committed to growing cross-sector partnerships and elevating education as both a strong partner and tool for climate action, sustainability, and environmental justice at the local and global levels.ResourcesNextGen Climate to Register Over 250k Young Climate American Voters

Tom Steyer, Founder and President of NextGen America, announced that NextGen Rising will work to mobilize over half a million young people (18-35 years old) in the United States to vote come election day, November 2018. This progressive voting coalition can change the balance of power by voting on climate and environmental justice issues. NextGen’s mobilization efforts have two parts: voter registrations, and pledges to vote. They will register 250,000 young people this cycle, and also collect an additional 250,000 pledge to vote cards from 18-35 year olds who are already registered. 18-to 35-year-olds form the largest voting bloc in America but they vote at half the rate of their parents generation. Studies have shown that when people commit, on paper, to doing something like voting they are much more likely to actually do it.

More than 176 health care institutions representing 17,000 hospitals and health centers in 26 countries are committing to reduce their carbon emissions by more than 16 million metric tons a year, equivalent to shutting down four coal fired power plants.

Health Care Climate Challenge is a Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) initiative to mobilize health care institutions around the world to play a leadership role in addressing climate change. The hospitals and health centers joining the Health Care Climate Challenge commit to taking meaningful climate action in three areas: mitigation, resilience and leadership. HCWH announced that Challenge participants have: Reported collective commitments to reduce their carbon emissions by more than 16 million metric tons—the equivalent of a year of carbon emissions from 4 coal-fired power plants; or savings of an estimated U.S. $1.7 billion in health costs related to air pollution; and saved U.S. $381 million through energy efficiency and renewable energy generation.

California Health Care Climate Alliance Founded

Five health systems have formed the California Health Care Climate Alliance, a leadership body of California health systems that are committed to protect the public from the health impacts

of climate change, become anchors for resilient communities, and contribute to meeting the state’s climate goals. The Alliance was launched in collaboration with Health Care Without Harm. The members, Dignity Health, Kaiser Permanente, Providence St. Joseph Health, Sutter Health and UC Health (including UCSF Health), represent:

119 hospitals in California (22% of CA hospitals)

23 million patients served

355,550 Californians employed

$6.33 billion provided in community benefit

Alliance members have each committed to deeply reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, which will result in a projected reduction of over 2.1 million metric tons of CO2e. Alliance members have installed and/or procured 311 MW of renewable energy.

Five health systems commit to bringing health care’s expertise, experience, and trusted voice to the legislative and regulatory process for climate-smart policies related to energy, transportation, food, waste, and infrastructure.

The mobilization has three ambitions: 1. To support California’s ambitious new Cultural Resources Climate Change Task force that will help set the standard for climate planning by heritage authorities; 2. To witness the launch of a new international Climate Heritage Network, a mutual support network of actors committed to aid their jurisdictions in achieving the Paris Agreement ambitions; and 3. To submit comments to the Talanoa Dialogue in advance of COP24.

Tech Mahindra Announces AI4Action

Tech Mahindra, in partnership with the Global Climate Action Summit, launched a global Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenge aimed at delivering tangible solutions for climate change. Over the next year, students and young professionals from universities, businesses and start ups are invited to submit creative, AI-powered ideas that will help tackle issues affecting the environment.

Coasts and Oceans

The world’s oceans have absorbed nearly 90% of anthropogenic carbon emissions to date, playing a vital role in slowing global warming. The oceans are changing rapidly as a result. Oceans provide a key mitigation service — one that can be enhanced through Marine Protected Areas, protecting coastal environments, and more — but also is facing grave threats that need to be protected against.

At the Global Climate Action Summit, the importance of the oceans to climate action was firmly highlighted alongside other sectors. Commitments were made to further global ocean stewardship and conservation in line with global warming mitigation and resiliency efforts. From ocean technologies to coastal advocacy, new members of the Ocean Acidification Alliance to pledges to plant thousands of coral, the oceans, and its advocates, are ready to step up and join in the global climate fight.

Hope for the Coast Campaign Launch

The California State Coastal Conservancy, in partnership with the Nature Conservancy and other NGOs, launched the Hope for the Coast Campaign.

The Pledge: We call on the state of California and local climate and coastal leaders to adopt the following Vision for California’s Coastal Future: In science-guided, collective action, we will maintain and enhance California’s coastal habitats in the face of sea level rise, other climate change-induced challenges, and development, ensuring a protected coast for future generations to enjoy, replete with as much or more habitat and wildlife, as well as social, economic, and recreational benefits, as we have today.

The Netherlands, State of Virginia, State of Hawaii and City of Seattle joined the Ocean Acidification Alliance and committed to taking meaningful actions within their jurisdiction to develop an Ocean Acidification Action Plan, which will help respond to the threat of ocean acidification within their regions.

The OA Alliance was first announced at the 2016 Our Ocean Conference hosted by Secretary John Kerry in Washington, D.C. and today has grown to more than 65 members, including national governments ranging from Chile to France to Iceland, New Zealand and Tuvalu, as well as states such as California and New York, tribal nations, cities, researchers and NGOs.

Organizers announced the results of the 48-hour pop-up innovation lab for the ocean that brought together a mix of creatives, designers, strategists, technologists, engineers, scientists, educators, marine conservationists and business talent with a passion for the ocean to develop prototypes with impact potential. The group developed a range of tangible concepts that can be further developed with the originators and activated through partnerships later in 2018 and 2019.

Coral Vita, which grows corals to restore dying reefs, commits to planting thousands of corals to restore degraded reefs in the Caribbean over the next two years.

Coral Vita announced the launch of their pilot coral farm in Grand Bahama and their intent to plant thousands of coral to restore degraded reefs. There, they are integrating breakthrough coral farming methods developed by their advisors to grow corals up to 50 times faster than in nature (Mote Marine Lab) while enhancing coral resilience to climate change (Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology). Using land-based coral farms, they can supply restoration projects at scale with more diverse and resilient corals to help protect reef health and the communities who depend on them. They ultimately plan to launch coral giga-farms growing millions of corals in every country and territory around the world with reefs carrying out unprecedented ecosystem-level restoration projects.

Initially, their pilot coral farm will be small-scale, growing several thousand coral fragments (always native to the host country/territory) every 6-12 month growing cycle. Corals will be transplanted into reefs with optimal conditions for restoration (e.g. in marine protected areas), where they will monitor for various impact metrics, such as coral growth rates and survivorship, changes in marine life diversity and abundance, and level of engagement with local community members. The farm will also serve as both a tourism attraction, using revenue to scale up restoration efforts, and an education center for local students and fishermen.

World Ocean Council to Assist Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Port Adaptation and Resilience Efforts

The World Ocean Council (WOC) announced a major new global effort to assist Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to:

Engage and advance business leadership and collaboration in port adaptation and resilience.

Overcome resource constraints and institutional barriers to planning for adaptation.

Establish the local “enabling conditions” that can catalyze private sector engagement needed for port adaptation, including finance.

The project will be developed and tested for replicability so that the program can scale globally to support port/coastal infrastructure adaptation needs in SIDS and in archipelagic and coastal developing countries in collaboration with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and other key multilateral and bilateral partners.

The project will undertake the multi-phase approach necessary to engage the private sector in ports and coastal infrastructure adaptation and resiliency in SIDS and archipelagic and coastal developing countries:

Adaptation replication in ports in other SIDS and developing countries

The program will undertake a systematic, integrated approach to “Grey, Green, Blue Infrastructure Strategy” for resilience, i.e. efforts should encompass: 1) Grey Infrastructure – the necessary built port and coastal environment, 2) Green Infrastructure – the natural systems that protect and maintain the integrity of coastal areas, and 3) Blue Infrastructure – the coastal habitats that are important for carbon sequestration, e.g. mangroves and seagrass beds.

Conclusion

Taking Ambition to the Next Level

As actors turn toward implementation, we know what is at stake: the survival of humanity.

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. of California, a Summit co-chair, said “This week, cities, states, businesses and nonprofits stepped up and took strong action at the Global Climate Action Summit. Now it’s time to take this momentum back home. Climate change waits for nobody. Let’s get to work.”